Daniel Gran und die Anfänge seines Schaffens in den böhmischen Ländern

Abstract

Paintings by François Roëttiers (1685–1742) delivered in 1732 for the side altars of the Church of St John of Nepomuk in Krahulčí near Telč, whose builders and patrons were Count Franz Anton of Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn and his wife Marie Anna of Halleweil, are the unique contribution in the Czech Lands of this painter of Flemish origin, who later settled in Vienna. However, the artist of the original image on the high altar of the same church, St John of Nepomuk adoring the crucifix, now missing, is not this painter. The original Baroque painting was replaced in 1890 by the current painting by the academic painter and restorer Čeněk Neumann. Contemporary records of his painting refer to it as a copy of the original Baroque painting. However, the distinctive visages of St John of Nepomuk and the attending angels evoke strikingly the work of the famous Viennese painter Daniel Gran (1694–1757), whose first contacts with clients in the Czech Lands are documented in the late 1720s. Apart from several indirect indications, Gran's presumed authorship is significantly supported by the finding of a Baroque graphic sheet with the figure of John of Nepomuk adoring the crucifix, whose very specific rendered face evidently corresponds to the matching part of Neumann's copy of the Baroque original. Johann Ernst Mansfeld (1739–1796), the creator of the graphic transcript, identified Daniel Gran as the author of the original which was used.